Your monthly Organizing Tips

As we head into fall, it feels like a great time to dig in to all those things we've been putting off while we enjoyed a summer break! I've highlighted some new resources below that I hope will help you set new goals and get more organized. As always, if you need any help, give me a call!

- Maryann

How Long Do I Keep It?

One of the most common questions I receive when organizing clients' paperwork is "how long do I have to keep this piece of paper?" Laura Moore, M.Ed., a sister member of NAPO-NE (National Association of Professional Organizers, New England) has done the research to find the answers to that question. recycle bin

Her book, Paper Clarity at a Glance, is short (just 22 pages), easy to use (it is wirebound to lie flat to the page you need, and has all the information organized into charts), and provides all the info you need about tax receipts, insurance papers, employment documents, and more. It is available for $11.95 from amazon.com, where you can preview inside.

By the way, according to Laura, you can throw away those ATM receipts once you have recorded the transaction in your checkbook and reconciled the receipts with your bank statement.

What "To Do" NEXT

Feeling overhwhelmed by all the stuff on your "Things To Do" list? Can't even find all your "To Do" lists because they're lost in your piles of things to do?

Whether it's organizing a room or working at your job, "what's next" depends on several factors: What are your goals? What are your priorities? What do you have to do? What can you get someone else to do? What will make the make the biggest impact? What will be fastest and easiest to do?

Brian Tracy, productivity guru and author of numerous books on time management, says the most critical thing is to identify the one task that will have the biggest impact on achieving your goal, and start working on that until you finish it!

So, if you're trying to organize your kitchen so you can prepare healthy meals, but your stovetop is covered with flammable materials, you may want to start there. Ignore all the other piles (for now), and spend ten minutes, or however long it takes, getting it cleared. Then, find the next most important thing and tackle that. Tackle one thing at a time, finish that one thing, and eventually you will see progress. Just be sure you're always tackling the MOST IMPORTANT thing each time.

For more help deciding what To Do next, give me a call at

(508) 292-6706.

Learning More About Hoarding

A number of you expressed interest in the new A&E TV show, Hoarders, on 10 pm Mondays (2 am Tuesdays). For those of you who don't get cable, you can see a brief segment of the show on You Tube by following this link: "Hoarders" segment.

If you have been affected by hoarding in your own life or have a family member of friend who suffers from compulsive hoarding, Dr. David Tolin, Ph.D., (the therapist on the show), and his colleagues would like to invite you to participate in an internet-based research study on compulsive hoarding. They hope this study will help improve their understanding and treatment of compulsive hoarding. If you are a mental health worker or service worker who regularly comes into contact with people who hoard, they'd also like to invite you to participate.

The questionnaire will take approximately 60 minutes to complete, and the answers will be completely anonymous.

Right now, according to Dr. Tolin, scientists and therapists know relatively little about compulsive hoarding. Your participation in the survey will go a long way toward helping them understand the scope and impact of this problem so that they can design better research studies and treatments for hoarding.

At the end of the survey, you will be invited to enter a raffle to receive one of 10 autographed copies of the book Buried in Treasures: Help for Compulsive Acquiring, Saving, and Hoarding (Oxford University Press, 2007), a book I recommend to anyone interested in more on this subject.

To participate, go to www.surveymonkey.com/hoarding and
answer the questions there.

Not everyone who is disorganized is a hoarder. But for those who do suffer from this condition, it is important to get the right kind of help before there are serious consequences. As a specialist in Chronic Disorganization and a former therapist myself, I have taken classes with Dr. Tolin, Dr. Gail Steketee (co-author of Buried in Treasures) and others on how to help, and I would be happy to talk with you about this further.

Please feel free to forward this information to anyone who you think might be interested in helping them learn more about hoarding. In addition, if you are interested in the email Hoarding Newsletter from Dr. Tolin and his colleages, send an email to adcresearch@harthosp.org to be added to their mailing list.

Please call me if you need additional help organizing your home, your office, or your schedule. I can come to your home or office and help you there, or do coaching by phone.

I also conduct trainings and do public speaking for corporations and community groups on Organizing, Time Management and Public Speaking.

My business relies on referrals, so please forward this to anyone you think might benefit from it. Thanks!

Sincerely,
Maryann Murphy, MSW
Professional Organizer, Speaker, Trainer

(508) 292-6706

Director of Professional Development, NAPO-NE

Certified Chronic Disorganization Specialist, NSGCD

Area Governor,Toastmasters International Area F2, District 31